new video loaded: How Donald Trump’s Father Made Him a Landlord at Age 3

transcript

bars

0:00/1:06

-1:06

transcript

How Donald Trump’s Father Made Him a Landlord at Age 3

As a toddler, Donald Trump was earning $200,000 a year in today’s dollars from his father’s empire. He was a millionaire by age 8. Here’s how Fred Trump’s financial maneuvering created a steady stream of income for Donald Trump and his siblings.

Ground lease: When a building and the land under it are owned by separate parties. The building owner leases the land, typically for 99 years. In the 1940s, Fred Trump bought the land where he would build the Beach Haven Apartments, a sprawling complex near Coney Island, in Brooklyn. He gave the land to a trust. The beneficiaries of the trust were his five children. Fred Trump then signed ground leases with the trust. In effect, he made his children into landlords. Donald Trump was 3 years old at the time. The leases committed the Beach Haven Apartments to pay $60,600 every year to Fred Trump’s children for the next 99 years. The maneuver created a steady stream of income for the Trump children for their entire lives. Fred Trump later set up similar ground leases at the nearby Shore Haven Apartments. Leases continued until the properties were sold 55 years later, paying Donald Trump the equivalent today of more than $4.8 million.

How Trump Got Rich

How Donald Trump’s Father Made Him a Landlord at Age 3

As a toddler, Donald Trump was earning $200,000 a year in today’s dollars from his father’s empire. He was a millionaire by age 8. Here’s how Fred Trump’s financial maneuvering created a steady stream of income for Donald Trump and his siblings.